Orphanage homes in Lagos

We were to pay an orphanage a visit on the day this article was written, and we put a call through to an orphanage in Ketu Lagos. A woman picked up the phone from the other end. She began speaking to me in an Indian language. I had to repeat my words in English for her to switch.

After she informed me that they don't allow for visit at the moment, probably due to the corona virus issue, I thanked her and hung up, and then proceeded to search for other orphanages, only to realize no one has written about it.


This brought serious concern to me. It tells me how little people care about orphans. And I was challenged to write down a list of all the orphanages in Nigeria. Trust me it's not a small job, but it is not impossible to achieve.


So, here I segmented them into states in Nigeria, including their state capital and Nigeria's capital. Each state has its different article. If you ever have any question or contribution, kindly let us know in the comment box. You can also contact us on +2347080225737 (Call/Text/WhatsApp)


There are several orphanage homes in Nigeria, unfortunately there are few information about them. Many who have the interest of visiting one are not even aware of the homes around them. This is because not many of those orphanage homes are online. So we took it upon ourselves to do something about it. However we can't do this without your help. 

While we are trying to collate the list of all the orphanage homes in Nigeria, we would also appreciate that you provide us with details of any orphanage home around you or far away from you (name of the orphanage, phone number and address of their location). You can do that in the comment box and we assure you it will go a very long way. 

In the mean time, here are the few we have been able to gather so far. 

Orphanage homes In Nigeria

We were to pay an orphanage a visit on the day this article was written, and we put a call through to an orphanage in Ketu Lagos. A woman picked up the phone from the other end. She began speaking to me in an Indian language. I had to repeat my words in English for her to switch.

After she informed me that they don't allow for visit at the moment, probably due to the corona virus issue, I thanked her and hung up, and then proceeded to search for other orphanages, only to realize no one has written about it.


This brought serious concern to me. It tells me how little people care about orphans. And I was challenged to write down a list of all the orphanages in Nigeria. Trust me it's not a small job, but it is not impossible to achieve.


So, here I segmented them into states in Nigeria, including their state capital and Nigeria's capital. Each state has its different article. If you ever have any question or contribution, kindly let us know in the comment box. You can also contact us on +2347080225737 (Call/Text/WhatsApp)


There are several orphanage homes in Nigeria, unfortunately there are few information about them. Many who have the interest of visiting one are not even aware of the homes around them. This is because not many of those orphanage homes are online. So we took it upon ourselves to do something about it. However we can't do this without your help. 

While we are trying to collate the list of all the orphanage homes in Nigeria, we would also appreciate that you provide us with details of any orphanage home around you or far away from you (name of the orphanage, phone number and address of their location). You can do that in the comment box and we assure you it will go a very long way. 

In the mean time, here are the few we have been able to gather so far.

1. Abia State Umuahia
2. Adamawa State Yola
3. Akwa Ibom State Uyo
4. Anambra State Awka
5. Bauchi State Bauchi
6. Bayelsa State Yenagoa
7. Benue State Makurdi
8. Borno State Maiduguri
9. Cross River State Calabar
10. Delta State Asaba
11. Ebonyi State Abakaliki
12. Edo State Benin City
13. Ekiti State Ado-Ekiti
14. Enugu State Enugu
15. Federal Capital Territory Abuja
16. Gombe State Gombe
17. Imo State Owerri
18. Jigawa State Dutse
19. Kaduna State Kaduna
20. Kano State Kano
21. Katsina State Katsina
22. Kebbi State Birnin Kebbi
23. Kogi State Lokoja
24. Kwara State Ilorin
25. Lagos State Ikeja
26. Nasarawa State Lafia
27. Niger State Minna
28. Ogun State Abeokuta
29. Ondo State Akure
30. Osun State Oshogbo
31. Oyo State Ibadan
32. Plateau State Jos
33. Rivers State Port Harcourt
34. Sokoto State Sokoto
35. Taraba State Jalingo
36. Yobe State Damaturu
37. Zamfara State Gusau

Descerning The Body - Ebele UzoPeters

Pastor Adeboye and Co.

IF YOU WANT TO UNDERSTAND Apostle Joseph Babalola, you have to remember that in Acts 8, when Philip went down to Samaria with the gospel of Jesus Christ, it was not to speak many words. He went there as Paul went to Corinth, not with words of man's wisdom, but with the demonstration of the Spirit, and of power. The people of Samaria were so confused and awed by witchcraft, that they called it the power of God. Philip changed all that so much that the sorcerer himself, wanted to be saved.

Pastor Joseph Babalola

When Ayodele Joseph Babalola was raised by God in South West Nigeria, it was to silence witchcraft that had gripped men so viciously, and to turn them from the power of Satan to Jesus Christ. Many were saved. Men saw the raw power of God in manisfestation destroying the power of witches and wizards and obliterating fear and black magic from their lives. This man will clear a field in the forest for a crusade and the town will be waiting for him and his team to drop dead because it is an evil forest. Instead, witches will start confessing their evil works and crying out for Jesus, in the crusade.

There were thousands of miracles, and manifestations of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. People were able to interpret tongues, even though they had not been TAUGHT these things from the word. The lame walked and many with terminal diseases were healed. Many incredible things happened. A woman who had died for four days with a baby in her womb was raised back to life. 

Joseph Babalola preferred to use water in the literal sense to bless and heal people. It was a demonstration of faith, NOT a doctrine. He was doing it to help the faith of the people in a way they could understand. He was not an academic person, and the people were not academic people. He knew little of the Bible. It was after the power of God came on him that he began to study the Bible.

BUT HE WAS A PRAYING MAN. It was basically a prayer revival, hence the term Aladura. Adura is prayer in Yoruba. Apostle Babalola could pray seated on one spot for three days. He would visit you and that prayer thing will just start and you will sleep and wake up, go out and come in, and the man of God will still be on that seat praying.

Now, like Peter and John came down to Samaria, God sent Sydney Granville Elton into this situation. He came with the word. At some point, he tried to explain to Babalola that his vision of a rod and a bottle of water were symbols of God's authority and anointing respectively, but the apostle did not exactly agree. Perhaps, if he had, the people will have learned the word, moved up in faith, and not have been locked up in the doctrine of water, which is not what Apostle Babalola at all intended.

Sir Elton was a bastion of the gospel according to the word of God. He TAUGHT people from the word, about the Holy Spirit, the manifestations of the Holy Spirit, marriage, deliverance, and everything...from the word perspective. He was said to take a seat and speak living words like someone receiving a dictation from heaven. He once taught on deliverance and then conducted a once for all deliverance service for everyone there, and that was it. 

Those who had been ill, bound to spiritual and ancestral curses from their previous religions went on to become missionaries and pastors and full fledged saints. Many many miracles were recorded, both of salvation and healing.

Pa Elton

GOD USED Pa Elton to bring the word into the power moves and ministries, so that they don't get carried away into spiritism and be able to judge all things by the word. Many men of God drank from that fountain. For instance, Gordon Lindsay (a wondeful man, and contemporary of Kenneth Hagin) told Pa Elton that he had a vision where he saw a black man kneeling before him. God told Pa Elton that the man was Benson Idahosa, and he told Lindsay. Lindsay asked for Idahosa to be sent to him, and that's how Idahosa went to Gordon Lindsay Bible school, and met TL Osborn, Oral Roberts and the others.

That brings us to Archbishop Benson Idahosa.

Many do not understand the difference between a thing and the abuse of a thing.
Once a thing has been abused, people quickly lump the two up and reject the very thing. This is a 

common error.
Many confuse the abuse of religion with religion itself
Many confuse the abuse of tithe, with tithe itself
Likewise, many confuse the abuse of prosperity, with prosperity itself

IN THOSE DAYS, "pentecostal" churches with all the word, tongues and miracles were despised. They were called "mushroom" gospel churches. In 1976 when General Olusegun Obasanjo visited Bendel State as military head of state; civil servants, justices of the court and clergy, were there to welcome the head of state.

Benson Idahosa

The security men went to the queue to identify those waiting. Idahosa who was there, and introduced himself as Rev. Idahosa but they said he was not supposed to part of the dignitaries, that it was for bishops, those who were recognized by government. He was bundled out, and that day vowed that the church will be a force to be reckoned with. 

He saw that the "Pentecostals" were schemed out of things. He had this boldness and anointing to bring pentecostalism to national and international relevance. Elijah was the enemy of the kings in his time, but Elisha was called "my father, my father, the chariots of Israel, and the horsemen thereof". That was Idahosa.

Bishop Oyedepo, Bishop Wale Oke, Bishop Mike Okonkwo, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, Pastor Chris Oyakhilome, and several others, drank deeply from this stream; as well as followed the men he went after, such as TL Osborn, Oral Roberts, Kenneth Hagin, Kenneth Copeland etc

MANY OF THE upstarts speaking against Bishop Oyedepo and others today will not be pastors today, if the likes of Archbishop didnt resist those things. Ministry was FAR FROM a young man's thing then. Go into ministry, and your familywill shed tears, and your fiancee will leave you. 

Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor

Have you read what Bishop Oyedepo said when he proposed to Mama faith? It was not all this Tinsel talk of nowadays. It was a carry your cross for the joy set before you thing. It was Archbishop Idahosa that changed the narrative. He was the first to start insisting on instruments and public address systems, when all the church used were tambourines, shekere, and talking drum. 

You will go to a gospel church with about 2000 members, and there will be only 4 cars in the car park, whereas in the Catholic and Anglican churches several people had cars. Many believers just wanted to spend all the time in church activities but were not doing so well outside those four walls. In the process of mingling with believers across the world and studying the scriptures, Idahosa began to preach that we don’t have to live in poverty in the name of serving God that prosperity is for God’s children. 

Prosperity mindset became a necessity. He was really concerned about the pentecostal churches. He spent a great deal of his life and ministry mentoring and strengthening other ministries outside Church of God Missions, his own ministry. He was a father. Those close to him know that he was a simple man and he did not elevate materialism above holiness. You know it was an exciting thing for us to know that we could still prosper and be Christians.

BUT JUST AS Apostle Babalola did not accept Pa Elton's worded interpretation of his visions and leadings. So also did Pa Elton not take it well when Benson Idahosa first started being a bishop, and then an Archbishop. It broke his heart.

This was when God raised the man called Pastor WF Kumuyi with the holiness message, so that just as deep fellowship with Scripture was to limit the excesses of people given to deep prayer, and righteous prosperity was to help those given to prayer and the word to shine in the world, so also would holiness message limit the excesses of prosperity message. 

I can never forget the first time I heard him speak through a screen/live broadcast. The fingerprint of Jesus was so heavy on me, just listening. I just heard Jesus talking, and stood transfixed to the spot. As far as I'm concerned, all the devil's box, don't wear this, don't wear that; were to me, quite ephemeral. The dimension to the body of Christ through him, was strongly evident. He was sent to call believers who had being blessed by the prayer of Aladura, the word of SU, and were now enjoying the prosperity of word of faith; to call them to holiness.

These were dimensions God brought in to build up the church. And of the many that stepped foot on the soils of Nigeria, and live or lived here.

Mike Okonkwo

MOST of the DELIVERANCE, and PRAYER ministries can be traced back to Joseph Babalola or Joseph Oshoffa, and others
MOST of the WORD ministries can be traced back through SG Elton, and the SU Revival, and others
MOST of the FAITH for PROSPERITY ministries can be traced back through Benson Idahosa, and others
MOST of the HOLINESS ministries can be traced througn Adeboye and Kumuyi, and others

BUT BY THE TIME Pastor Kumuyi came on the scene, the Babalola-like churches and the Elton-like ministries and the Idahosa-like churches were separated by certain cracks; such that the Aladura move and the Evangelical move of the SU, and the word of faith moves were already separate. 

Holiness camp was therefore also set up, and without the others, stretched into legalism beyond what the set man could handle. For instance, the (Late) Mrs. Kumuyi once told women in Deeper Life that it was not every time they should cover their heads, but they should do so only when praying and prophesying. The women thought Pastor Kumuyi’s wife was wrong. The could not believe she would say that, and elders in the ministry have opposed Pastor Kumuyi for trying to deviate from 'holiness message'

DISCIPLES!

Just as disciples took the manifestations of Babalola and made it a doctrine
So did disciples take the word and tongues of Elton and make it a fad
So also did disciples of Idahosa take prosperity and make it THE message
As did disciples of Deeper Life take holiness message and stretch it into legalism

Everyone formed their own ideological and doctrinal camp.

I conclude with the RCCG. As greatly anointed as Pastor Adeboye is, he has formed no other camps than the redemption camp on Kilometre 46, Lagos Ibadan expressway, where everyone is welcome. You would be amazed how many different kinds of ministers have been there to visit, and even hold their own meetings.  

Pastor Adeboye

Pa Akindayomi, his predecessor and founder (who founded the RCCG in 1952) was already a stronghold of prayer, encounters with the Holy Spirit, holiness, and Bible study, and passed these verities to baba. As a young brilliant man, baba went after Kenneth Hagin; he went after Pa Elton. Bishop Francis Wale Oke brought him and Archbishop Benson Idahosa together, and they had fellowship. 

So RCCG did not throw their tambourines away when they picked up microphones and instruments and air conditioning. When the inspiration of model parishes came, and was opposed by some of the Aladura style of worship elders, Pastor Adeboye encouraged it mightily. 

There is no perfect church, but RCCG nationwide and worldwide is the closest example of what the church should be like: old women, young men, excited youths, orthodox like elders, tongue talkers, Baba-se, Baba-se prayer warriors; worded fellows....everyone finds a place. They have helped those who are tired of the monotony of Catholic and Anglican, the practices of Aladura, the legalism of holiness, the Hebrew and Greek of word of faith, and the excesses of focusing on prosperity; to find a place to worship.

That's what it means to be a shepherd, and a pastor.

Space will fail me to speak of so many others; but Joseph Babalola was more of an apostle, Pa Elton a teacher, Benson Idahosa a prophet, Enoch Adeboye a pastor, and well, Reinhard Bonnke is an evangelist.

Ephesians 4:11
He (that is, JESUS CHRIST) is the one who gave these gifts to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers.

Ephesians 4:12
Their responsibility is to equip God's people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ,

Ephesians 4:13
Until we come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God's Son that we will be mature and full grown in the Lord, measuring up to the full stature of Christ.

Ephesians 4:14
Then we will no longer be like children, FOREVER CHANGING OUR MINDS ABOUT WHAT WE BELIEVE BECAUSE SOMEONE HAS TOLD US SOMETHING DIFFERENT OR BECAUSE SOMEONE HAS CLEVERLY LIED TO US AND MADE THE LIE SOUND LIKE THE TRUTH.

Ephesians 4:15
Instead, we will hold to the truth in love, becoming more and more in every way like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church.

Ephesians 4:16
Under his direction, the whole body is fitted together perfectly. AS EACH PART DOES ITS OWN SPECIAL WORK, IT HELPS THE OTHER PARTS GROW, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.

Bishop Oyedepo

God has sent us various men over the years, to build His church, by comprehending with all the saints in love, storey by storey,to heavenly heights, and lengths, and depths, and breadths, into a habitation of the Spirit, filled with all the fullness of God, Christ Himself being the chief corner stone.

Instead we keep building several great big bungalows.

Is it not time to have the former rain and the latter rain together in the same generation, and to bring together 'Luther's Faith', 'Calvin's Grace', 'Wesley's Holiness', 'Finney's Conviction', 'Kenyon's New Creation', 'Wigglesworth's Power', 'Watchman Nee's Christ Crucified' 'Hagin's Love', 'Yonggi Cho's Church Growth', 'Tanee Fomum's Consecration', and 'Strong's Hebrew and Greek'; etc, so that the beautiful name of Jesus be magnified in all the earth, and in Heaven.

It is time.

So let the people of God say...

Amen.

An Exposition of Psalm 23 - Olaoluwa Okunnuwa

On a general note, Psalm 23 is perhaps the most often quoted scripture. Apart from John 3:16, this Psalm 23 and the "Lord's Prayer" in Mathew 6 and Luke 11 rank as the most quoted scriptures. But it does not necessarily mean that they are well understood.

David was a lover of God, His name even means "beloved". This Psalm 23 was a song of a lover to His Lover. It was not just one of those songs, but it was an expression of David's CONFIDENT Trust in God. Psalm 23 was a song of a LOVER of God and of one who was loved by God.

The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.

One could literally sense the tone of ASSURANCE in those words of David. When the Lord is our Shepherd, we can be sure to have all we need. One translation says, NOTHING SHALL I LACK. Another version says, I AM NEVER IN NEED. Yet another one beautifully puts it this way, I DON'T NEED A THING.

Here he watched them all day, taking care that none of the sheep strayed, and if any for a time eluded his watch and wandered away from the rest, seeking diligently till he found and brought it back. In those lands sheep require to be supplied regularly with water, and the shepherd for this purpose has to guide them either to some running stream or to wells dug in the wilderness and furnished with troughs.

At night he brought the flock home to the fold, counting them as they passed under the rod at the door to assure himself that none were missing. Nor did his labors always end with sunset. Often he had to guard the fold through the dark hours from the attack of wild beasts, or the wily attempts of the prowling thief

The Lord is the SLEEPLESS One and so, we are certain that He watches over us! Human shepherd may sleep, but the One Who is our Shepherd does not sleep or slumber. This should help us to appreciate the Lord's Shepherding Dimension over our lives.

The journey for the shepherd begins EARLY IN THE MORNING. He is not thinking of breakfast, or some undone task or some leftover chores. He is thinking about you. The Bible asks rhetorically, WHAT IS MAN THAT THOU ART MINDFUL OF HIM? Indeed, His MIND is FULL of US! Before we were formed in our mother's womb, the Lord had a PLAN and a PURPOSE, and a WORD awaiting us!

In both old and new testaments, MAN is referred to as "sheep". In Isaiah 53:6, it was said that "All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned everyone to his own way..." and in Matthew 9:36, the people were described as sheep without a shepherd. To hear and not heed the Voice of the Shepherd is to go own way.

And this usually brings a lot of loss and damage, even physical death at times. We can be said to FAINT and SCATTERED if we are without the Shepherd; because ONLY HIM can FEED and SATISFY our hunger and ONLY HIM can GATHER our broken pieces in the warm embrace of His goodness and mercy!

The Lord is our Shepherd. And He is ever in relentless pursuit of the lost sheep. He is so full of compassion that He would LEAVE "Ninety-Nine" Obedient sheep to go after the ONE (what? just one? yes, just ONE) lost, disobedient or ignorant or "sheepish" sheep. Permit my vocabulary, please.

I hear the Lord saying: I AM your Shepherd. I care about you. Your welfare is priority to Me. I care what you eat and feed on. I care where you go. I care even where you lie to rest. I care how you feel. I care. My compassion is welling up on My Inside towards you.

My bowel of compassion is flowing in your direction. You will see My care for you in a greater dimension day after day. And you will acknowledge Me as your Shepherd. Amen. Glory to God!

Verse 2: He makes me to lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside the still waters.

Note the two Verbs: the Shepherd MAKES us rest in the place of His Choice. He does not need our counsel. He knows where exactly the "green pasture" is for us. This brings to mind the vital place of hearing His Voice to know His Heart (His Will, Desire, Stand) concerning EVERY situation of our lives.

And the second verb: He LEADS us... It is My delight to lead you, says the Lord. I take pleasure in giving you direction. I want you to also delight in obeying My Voice and following in My Footsteps.

Verse 3: He RESTORS my soul. He LEADS me in the paths of righteousness for His Name's sake.

See those words! In one word, Our Shepherd is doing a glorious work of reversing the cycle of death. As we yield to the Shepherding-dimension of the Lord, we will experience a work of RESTORATION back to the Original Intention of His Heart before He fashioned us in our mother's womb.

If we stray away from the path that the Lord has laid out for us by following our fleshly lusts or the opinions of men or ungodly counsel, then we lose the provisions He has made ready for us. But if we REPENT and RETURN to the Bishop and Great Shepherd of our soul (1Pe 2:25 For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls), then we will be RESTORED.

Verse 4. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. For Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me.

Wow! Have we such consciousness of the abiding Presence of God that casts out all fear? I have seen believers today who are living in fear, thinking they are living in faith; oh, we are not to be as such! Our boldness is rooted in our awareness of the Indwelling Presence of God.

There are real life situations that can only be captured as "the valley of the shadow of death", but more real is the Lord who is with us as our Shepherd. He will never leave us, whether we are going through the "dark and deadly valleys" of life or enjoying its "green pastures".

Glory to God!

It seems to me that while the ROD is used by the Shepherd to ADJUST, Discipline, Correct, Rebuke the sheep; the STAFF is perhaps used to INSTRUCT, Guide, Educate, Teach the sheep. Note that both the rod and the staff have ONE PURPOSE: to bring COMFORT to the sheep.

Oh, there are many times that the chastening of the Lord may seem too great for us to bear, but in the end, it turns out for our comfort. And out of the comfort that the Lord has comforted us, we can comfort others who He brings our way! The Lord chastens the son whom He loves. Yes, the Shepherd does the same to the sheep He loves.

Verse 5: You prepare a table before me, in the presence of mine enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup runs over.

The natural sheep don't worry about where to graze tomorrow, as long as they remain in the fold of the human shepherd. It is the shepherd that is responsible to discern a good pasture with nutritious plants for the sheep. He avoids fields with thorns and thistles and poisonous weeds.

Same with the Lord, our Shepherd. He has PREPARED before we came on board. He has made ready a feast of Fat Things for us. Indeed, all things are ready! Or do you think that God would lead us as His sheep to a pasture without good grass and then say He is sorry for bringing us to such a place? And that we should "manage the available dry grasses."? No!  The Lord has brought us to a wealthy place that will shut the mouth of the enemy.

Someone's going through a tough time at work and the situation back at home is not helping matters, and your heart is asking: Lord, are You still there? Can You furnish a table in the wilderness? Yes, the Lord can furnish a table in the wilderness. Yes, over and over, He can make rivers to flow again in the dry places of our lives.

Final verse...

Verse 6. Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord.

As long as we are following the Lord our Shepherd, we can be sure that His Goodness and Mercy will follow us. Not just for a moment, or an hour or a day or a week or a month or a year...but for our LIFE TIME.

May we desire to not just be a sheep that only loves to graze in the FIELD of the Lord, but that presses on to BECOME A dweller in God's House. Or if we can also say, to become the very Dwelling Place of God. That is why in WaterGate church, we say verse 6 this way: surely, goodness and mercy are following me all the days of my life and I have become the dwelling place of God.

In summary, it is the Lord's desire that we rise up in His Fullness, both in Nature and Stature, in Purity and Power, in Authority and Audacity. Practically, we all are shepherds one way or the other: whether as a pastor, or a parent, or a boss, or employer of labor, or as an elderly sibling...etc. Therefore we must seek to express what the Lord has embodied and exemplified for us in this most precious psalm of David.

Let us remember that it was a song that David wrote probably while meditating on God's goodness to him. Write yours too... Maybe we need to touch a certain depth of God's Love before we can really do this, because John the Beloved, like David "beloved" wrote about the Lord Jesus as the Good Shepherd in John 10. Selah.

Amen.

We are praying that the Lord will indeed be our Shepherd, as individuals, families, as a corporate people in a local church and a nation. Lord, help us to stand as true shepherds after Your Nature and in Your Stature to feed Your people...that we may be all You have written concerning us!

Lord, help us to touch the depth of your love that unveils the dynamics of YOU as our GOOD, GREAT, AND CHIEF SHEPHERD. AMEN.

Balanced Truth of the New Creation Reality - Ebele UzoPeters

I used to think the great need of the church was for theologians to be filled with the Spirit; now it is evident that the need for the Spirit filled teachers to be well grounded in theology is just as great.

Theology, though a misnomer, is strong in hermeneutics. A lot of what is called hermeneutics in pentecostal circles is just amplified private interpretation. One person starts teaching his own interpretation of a thing, say righteousness for instance, and keeps saying it until it spreads.

That's not how biblical interpretation works. Righteousness is the ability to stand before God without the feeling of inferiority or guilt. Fine. That's a good definition, but Righteousness is also the ability to deny one's self, lose one's rights, and live for God and for God alone. How about that?

It is not only right standing. It is standing right. This means that it is not just the Father saying (1) I am pleased with you; it also is (2) You do only the things that please me. It is not only Christ's finished works. It is His workmanship.

This means that it is not just that (1) God has worked some things in me with pleasure; but that (1) I am working those things out with fear, and with trembling.

So righteousness is not only what God has made me in Christ; righteousness is also how I walk with God in Christ. God did not only create me in Christ, He prepared a path for me beforehand, that I should walk in it.

If I teach people how to walk with God in Christ, and I have not taught them who they are in Him, I have not taught righteousness. If I teach people who they are in Christ, and stop; I have not taught righteousness. If I say "don't teach dos and don'ts, just teach them who they are in Christ"...I am not talking about righteousness, I am only presenting my own ideas.

I've heard people say this and then turn around and say "the Bible has instructions for right living, we teach right living BUT....

BUT WHAT?

If a believer does not live right, it does not affect His salvation?
If a believer is not living right, it does not affect what he has been made in Christ?

My brother, that is a lie. It is a subtle lie. I urge you to stop believing it. I know many have preached and taught it. I do; but it is not true.

The Bible says in 2 Peter 1:9. For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.

Does that sound like an unaffected righteousness?

The Bible says in Romans 8:13. FOR IF YOU LIVE ACCORDING TO THE FLESH YOU WILL DIE; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

It does NOT say...guys you cannot die, but just don't live according to the flesh. It warns....living like this leads to death.

Or can an unaffected righteousness die?

Say your righteouness is Christ from today till tomorrow, and nothing is wrong with your scriptural fact, but something is wrong with your hermeneutics

So let's do away with the poor one-sided misrepresentation of God's truth and say what the Bible says, the whole of what the Bible says, and nothing more or less.

We know there are some who think one sin has destroyed everything God did for us in Christ and who teach that a believer is righteous until his next sin

That is NOT true

Must we therefore now take the opposite extreme and say a believer is righteous no matter what he does, because he has been made the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus?

Because that is also NOT true. The Bible says in 1 John 3:7. Little children, let no one deceive you. HE WHO PRACTICES RIGHTEOUSNESS IS RIGHTEOUS, just as He is righteous.

So I used to think the great need of the church was for theologians to be filled with the Spirit; now it is evident that the need for the Spirit filled teachers to be well grounded in theology, is just as great.

Your education in theology is complete when you know everything the Bible says about any one thing, and you speak of that reality in the context of the whole truth. These are the teachers we need today. To this all the apostles gave witness

Talk about Pauline revelation from now till tomorrow. This is what Paul taught. He taught righteousness as right standing and standing right. He said "You are seated with Christ... Walk in Him...Put away lying... Speak the truth". He said "Don't live like the unsaved. (You have not so learned Christ... Ephesians 4:20)

John said (Not tomorrow, or after living right but right...) NOW are we the sons of God.....EVERYONE that has this hope PURIFIES HIMSELF (1 John 3:1-3)"

Someone comes along and says "Sir, try hard as I want to, I cannot live right"

The church does not need the one who says "If you can't live right, you are not saved. You are not righteous" filling me with guilt and preparing me to try harder and end in despair. The church does not need the one who says 'Don't worry, you are righteous no matter what you do" filling me with impunity and unrepentance, and preparing me for apostasy.

We need the one who says "you are righteous so you live right". "But I have tried to and I'm failing", "Sister, are you righteous?". "Yes brother, I am", "Does a dog try to bark?" (I mean..no one should say a dog isn't a dog until it barks. Neither should one say concerning a dog making cat and chicken sounds...don't worry, that does not affect its dog-ness)

"No brother. It barks because it's a dog", "Have you been made righteous, sister?", "Yes, I have!", "Then hallelujah, praise the Lord! You live right!" The one who keeps saying that until the day dawns and the Daystar rises in the heart of the listener...

That is the Lord's faithful workman in these last days, who rightly divides the word of truth. So invite me to word conferences and camp meetings to laugh in the Spirit and rejoice in the word....but I tell you, I also am badly in need of a historical and exegetical seminary education.

Facebook © 2017

A TRIED MAN - Kehinde Osunrinde

               

Is it not funny that virtue is gradually becoming a thing of the past, this generation of violence and disdain act which has lose its savor. I look and cry around for a ‘’TRIED MAN’’, but they are becoming as scarce as commodity. Gone are the days when I used to believe our generation will liberate the world. Rather,we are digging a ditch for ourselves and our unborn children. The scenario of tried and tested men began after the fall of Adam. Man began to be tried, tested and approved for that great assignment. 

<Abram was tried and tested before he was called Abraham the father of faith.

<Joseph encountered tribulations and he was tried {psalm 105:17-22}, and the lord caused a great famine in the land of Egypt that made Joseph a solution in his generation.

<Esther, a woman of honour who liberated her people and became a peacemaker.

<Mary {mother of Jesus}, a woman of virtue and a blessing to humankind, she birthed salvation to the world; blessed is she amongst women.

<Jesus, the rock of salvation, he was tempted, beaten, crucified and rose again . He is the beginning and the only end.

Alas! I see perversion. It has now become a trend for old men or fathers to sleep with their little girls. Men changing their physique to look like a woman. It is not just  earthquake but humanquake, not natural disaster but artificial one; which we created by ourselves for ourselves, and at the end of such; the common saying comes out wide,” it is  the devil’s work’’. Oh no!, That’s a lie. The devil is not omnipresent, he cannot be everywhere and will never use a man who is not fit..

Let’s stop being an embodiment of a beast, or being religious fanatics. Stop that act of me alone. It is high time we dropped this life of a mediocre and embrace virtue. Let there be a rising army. Let sons and daughters of God emerge, and let virtue rise again

We are going to stop planting the seeds of pestilence.

               WHAT A WORLD

                             On our knees                                                 

                              Our dear Divine,

                              Humans at the verge of crashing

                              Failed character birthing crashed destiny

                              Wisdom has lost its dignity as a by product of experience

                              Wisdom is now elusive in nature.

                              Virtue has lost  her root

                              Helpless are we in the face of frustration.

                             

                              Lord Divine,

                              Deliver us from quaking

                              Help us to resist the devil

                              That we may raze hell

                              And blaze the trail.

                              Try us and find us worthy

                              Give us the right strategy to win

                                     this battle of self,

New Wine conference

Glory to God, our father, so far, for this great grace. it has been a while, yet, God is is still working. glory to God for the just concluded program held by The Husbandman Ministries - New Wine Conference. more to come your way.

From Fear to Faith - Damilare Bello

From the inception, fear has been an archenemy of man; a monster that has tried every attempt to crown itself over man, turning man to its prey. At first, man was king in his kingdom, without fear. However, after giving in to the lies of the father of lies, it opened the door of their heart to allow fear take dominion from their eyes, and they had served this monster until the coming of Christ.

Like an invisible enemy, it would crouch into people’s hearts by reason of what their eyes and ears and heart accommodate. It hollows out their inside, until their resistance and strength is spent and they suddenly break down. Fear would secretly gnaw and eat away at all the ties that bind a person to God and to others, and when in a time of need that person reaches for those ties and clings to them, they break and the individual sinks back into himself or herself, helpless and despairing, while hell rejoices.

 

And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. A windstorm arose on the sea, so great that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep. And they went and woke him up, saying, “Lord, save us! We are perishing!” And he said to them, “Why are you afraid, you of little faith?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a dead calm. They were amazed, saying, “What sort of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him?” Matthew 8:23–27:

Some of the fruits of fear are loneliness, helplessness, etc. They give one the feeling that there is no way out, creating in one this raving impulse to get oneself out of this hell of hopelessness. Fear stares at one in the face and makes threats. And when you experience fear, you know quite alright that peace is lost within you. And that only tells how evil and monstrous fear can be.

But we are not of them that fear. We are rather of them that believe in the perfect love that casts out fear, or better still, the perfect God that casts out fear.  For God is love, and the love of God that has soaked our heart by His spirit drives away every fear that the enemy brings. And so today, we stand boldly anywhere and everywhere, like in the days of the Apostles to proclaim the word of God with love.

We do not give in to the lies of the devil that makes  us feel skeptical about what tomorrow holds, what we will eat, drink, wear, etc. Rather, we substitute every form of fear with a faith that is stronger than fear, and more certain than logic. The media might continue to promote fear, circumstance might not cease to breathe negativity, but so long Christ lives in us, the wind and the seas lives to fear us, and not the other way round. 

The Daniels - Stephen Fagbenro

From what we have read and heard, it is hard to rightly dissect the way of life of the Daniels, those who in their lifetimes changed the course of man’s history; those who were caught up from the cities of their inheritance into Babylon, a place where ungodliness and immorality is the bane of their (the Babylonians) uncertain end. 

The Daniels might have been seen as a people driven by consequences of their parents sins and of their forefathers’ errors, as well as their own iniquities. They could as well be justifiably described as ones who have missed their ways in the maze of existence, and who have been deceived into believing that they have a Heavenly Father who intentionally sold them into slavery but would not be able to deliver them eventually. 

However, the Daniels are not just captives of war, they are actually the freemen. The Daniels are not just some frail figures of men locked up in strange land of confusion, they are ones who have found reasons to live in such empire.

The Daniels are not minds of men configured, indoctrinated and held in slavery to the point of giving up, they are the exceptional ones who have broken the jinx of slavery and its mentality, rose above the restricted and convoluted four corners of their minds.

The Daniels are not a people threatened by death or fear of terror by some wicked autocratic king, they are few among many who are committed to the service of their God, thereby, able to stand undaunted, not before mere men, but before kings and princes, even despots. 

The Daniels are not many, they are the few. They are found at the backseat of palaces, and in the gate of the king. They are the strongholds behind the authority of the land they’ve been brought to as slaves. They are the righteous unseen forces that steer the course of event that man the land of their captors.

They are the voice that holds on or pulls down the edicts of a tyrant. They are the visionaries of the country. They are the eyes that read boldly, the strange handwriting on the walls. They are the authority that carry the message of judgment to a despot without holding anything back. They are the bold, the fearless, and the fierce. Even lions tremble at their presence and pay homage. 

The Daniels are ferocious against every thoughts of wickedness. They subdue nations and kingdoms on their knees. They understand time and seasons. They know when time of redemption comes. They stand in the gap for the sake of men, and make hedge on behalf of their land.

They see from afar, even though with clouded eyes; they see the end of things on their knees. They are not permitted to leave before their time, because they hold the fort, and have tremendous impact in the history of their land. They do not renege in the face of terror. They stay to their course.

The Daniels are the just who lived by faith, who believed in the power of the WORD and the endless life. They did not see the light with their face. They only saw a shadow of it. But the little they saw, they held strongly in their grasp.

The Daniels are everywhere, in the palace, on the street, in lion’s den, and at the king’s gate. They speak of nations, of their rise and fall. They time span beyond the days of many kings. They see into the future, both the nearest and the farther ones. They are the oracles of God, which give clarity to the hazy time of the end. 

But I see a time, when a host of recreated Daniels will rise to their call and duty. They will flood the face of the earth and overwhelm the confusion thereof. They will open the eyes of the blind and raise the dead. They will proclaim a word about their nation and its leaders, and it will be done.

They will speak softly in their closet, and their voice will be heard abroad. They will declare a thing from the rising of the sun, and its effects will be quick, reaching as far as the setting of the same. The mountains of man and beast will tremble and quake at their presence.

Their visions will be sharp and photographic. They will walk around in their four-dimensional faces. The time is now, and every man and woman is eligible to be part of this incredible host. Wouldn’t you rather be?

The Knowing - Cephas Sarki

Every carpenter will have an end product picture in mind before bringing out his chisel and hammer to carve a wood into a finished material. And since not all materials with go with just any kind of wood, he knows just the right wood for that material. It is his profession, his area of specialization, so he simply can’t be wrong, neither can he make the mistake of applying the right design on the wrong material.

So is it with God and us even before we came to the womb: our strength, weakness, likes, dislikes, color, race, type, taste, purpose, and length of days. He knows them all because He had designed us to possess all those qualities for that purpose he has in mind for us before creating us. And that is why, as we grow, several questions tend to flood our minds, such as: 

*Who am I?

*What is my purpose here on earth?

*How do I go about it?

*Is life worth living at all?

*What happens to me after my stay here on earth?

And so the only way to get answers to our unending questions is by knowing who He is because we are made after His own image and likeness. Through Him we get to know our strength and the abilities He has given to every one of us, with which we can go on and live the live we are made to, because we know our maker.

The seven sons of Sceva heard and saw the mighty works of God done by Paul the Apostle by the name of Jesus. Instead of going further to know about that Jesus whom paul preach, they went ahead to try casting out evil spirit from the possessed. The end result was dramatic.

 Seven sons of a certain Jewish chief priest named Sceva were doing this.

 But one evil spirit retorted, Jesus I know, and Paul I know about, but who are you?

 Then the man in whom the evil spirit dwelt leaped upon them, mastering two of them,

 and was so violent against them that they dashed out of that house [in fear], stripped naked and wounded. 

Acts 19:14-16 [AMP]

Our knowledge of Christ gives us freedom. We find rest in Him. And we gracefully scale through the pool of unnecessary mistakes

And such as violate the covenant he shall pervert and seduce with flatteries, but the people who know their God shall prove themselves strong and shall stand firm and do exploits[for God]. Isaiah 11:32

We are made strong by the knowledge of Christ in us. We know who we are in him. We understand our rights and our place. We are not shaken by the winds of the world and its forces. Unlike the sons of Sceva, we know the name by whom we preach, because our identity comes from him. We are not supposed to belong to the fold of existing souls in wonder of who they are or what they should do. We live in wonders, not in wonder. We manufacture wonders. We do not wonder. In him we live, move, and have our being. We have a knowing.